Marc Lamont Hill Is Voting Green, Has ‘Very Little Trust’ In Democratic Party

Dr. Marc Lamont Hill has been rising in prominence over the past few years. He is a Distinguished Professor at Morehouse College and a recent New York Times Bestselling author of the book Nobody. Now, the Vh1 and BET TV show host has shared his electoral plans for November with 105.1’s The Breakfast Club team – Charlamagne The God, DJ Envy, and Angela Yee.

Spoiler alert: They aren’t good for Hillary Clinton or the Democratic Party.

Hill appeared on The Breakfast Club on Wednesday, to discuss a host of topics.

On His Background

The North Philly native talked through his difficulties in young adulthood having sometimes gotten into trouble, dropping out of Morehouse, and ending up homeless. “I lived in the Lennox Mall train station on the floor,” he told Charlamagne.

He explained how his background informs who he is as a professor today saying, “I went to Temple then I went to Penn. Then, about two years ago, Morehouse called me and said, ‘do you want to come back?’ I was like, ‘it’s been about eighteen years since I dropped out. It would be kind of ill to go back and be the person who I probably needed when I was there’.”

On the Democratic National Convention

“The DNC disappointed me –” Hill said. “Why?” Dj Envy asked. “– because it looked like a Republican convention,” Hill told DJ Envy. “The country is just getting dragged so far to the right that Republicans are just off the map so Democrats are moving to the center. So it seems more progressive. All they talk about is how great America is.”

Continuing his critique of Democratic Convention, Hill said “They tried to take the patriotism language that the Republicans usually use in their conferences and used it for their own. They talked about war. They talked about the economy in a way that sounded like Republicans from twenty years ago. Part of the reason it was so easy for Melania to jack Michelle Obama’s speech is because they’re all saying the same stuff.”

On Voting With Democrats

When asked about his feelings on Trump, Hill replied, “I’m not scared of Trump. I’m scared of us as a country moving in the wrong direction.”

He continued by saying, “I have very little trust in what the Democratic Party is doing. I worry that we are investing so much faith in them out of fear. Republicans are always talking about terrorism, but Democrats are playing on a certain kind of terrorism, too. They’re essentially saying, ‘If you don’t vote for us, then you’re going to have Donald Trump and your life will be ruined.’ I’m saying that, if you frame that as the choice, you never get to demand what you actually deserve and what you actually want.”

When Angela Yee asked Hill about his preference for Hillary Clinton, he replied “I wouldn’t vote for her. I’m voting for the Green Party.”

As Charlamagne pushed him on this answer, he explained further.

“Every four years we say, ‘The third party can’t win.’ So we never invest in the third party. We never grow the third party.” He believes that by getting the third party in the debates the conversation will begin to shift. “Part of why Hillary is talking all this progressive stuff is because of Bernie. But what happens when Bernie leaves the stage. A third party is like a constant Bernie but not just on the issue of economic justice, also on the issue racial justice, mass incarceration.”

“I would rather have Trump be president for four years and build a real left-wing movement that can get us what we deserve as a people, than to let Hillary be president and we stay locked in the same space where we don’t get what we want.”

Watch the full interview below:

Photo: YouTube

Tagged:

Jenn M. Jackson was born and raised in East Oakland, California, a fact which motivates her writing and academic ambitions. She is a scholar, educator, and writer whose writing addresses Black Politics and civil and public life for young Black people with a focus on policing and surveillance. She is also the Editor-in-Chief of Water Cooler Convos, a culture platform for Black millennials. Her writing has been featured in Washington Post, BITCH Magazine, Marie Claire, EBONY, The Root, Daily Dot, The Independent, and many others.

Jackson is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago studying American Politics with a focus on political participation and engagement, public opinion and social movements. For more about her, tweet her at @JennMJack or visit her website at jennmjackson.com.